Bangladesh wants to send up to 100,000 Rohingya back to Myanmar in the first batch of repatriations of Muslim refugees who fled ethnic violence this year, officials said today.

Senior minister Obaidul Quader said a list of 100,000 names was to be sent to Myanmar authorities on Friday so repatriations could start in late January under an accord between the two governments.

More than 655,000 Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine state have sought refuge in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in late August, fleeing what the US and United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing.

That added to more than 300,000 in camps in Bangladesh after fleeing earlier violence in the Buddhist majority state.

The two governments signed an agreement in November allowing for repatriations from January 23. Many aid groups and diplomats doubt that fearful Rohingya will agree to return.

The Rohingya have been the target of past pogroms in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which does not recognise the group as a genuine ethnicity and has stripped them of citizenship.